1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves a tool for manually altering the angle of a sheetrock corner bead strip. More specifically, the tool has been developed for changing a standard 90.degree. corner bead strip to angles greater than 90.degree., e.g., suitable for reverse 45.degree. wall angles, i.e. where the wallboard has an angle of approximately 135.degree.. The tool relies upon a plurality of in-series spreader wheels and in-series corner holder wheels to cause the angle of the bead strip to be altered. The tool may be held in one hand and the bead strip pulled through the tool with the other hand to accomplish the angle change.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The advent of sheetrock for finishing home interior walls brought with it a new trade and new construction methods. To strengthen the sheetrock or plasterboard on the corners where no finishing trim is applied, corner bead strips are used. These are typically somewhat resilient strip metal products running in various lengths, e.g. just under eight feet, and formed approximately 88.degree. to 90.degree. angles, to be used on typical true 90.degree. corners. These bead strips are usually perforated to enhance installation and may be nailed in place and then spackled, sanded and painted.
The standard bead strips are formed at about 90.degree.. While this may be advantageous for the typical corner, bold interior designs as well as reconstruction of existing structures presents problems with non-90.degree. wall junctures. For example, they may be reverse 15.degree. angle walls, i.e. walls at 105.degree., reverse 30.degree. angle walls, i.e. walls at 120.degree. angles, reverse 45.degree. walls, i.e. at 135.degree.. Usually, these non-90.degree. angles are consistent for the height of a wall juncture and an entire height of bead strip must be "spread" or "squeezed" to form the new angle. When this is done by hand without tools, the results are irregular and inaccurate. On the walls, such bad strips need extra nailing and/or spackle and may bulge or wave. Thus, the effort is very time consuming with disappointing results. The present invention tool has been developed so as to cut down substantially on time to do the job, eliminate sore hands of the workers, avoid inaccuracies, extra nailing and/or spackle, and eliminate disappointing and inferior finished results.
Some strip benders have been developed in the past, but create their own difficulties for the user. Other types of bending tools such as fender tools and sheet metal bending tools have also been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,880,246 describes a fender tool using opposing wheels contained in a U-shaped frame for drawing sheet metal therethrough to reshape the metal. This device exposes the metal in that one edge is exposed while the metal is being formed, and a singe set of wheels with curved surfaces are used, whereas the present invention includes a plurality of wheels, which retain, shape, guide, maintain alignment and produce straight line angle changes. In addition, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,610,019; 1,470,399 and 867,417 all describe bending machines to change the shape of a strip of metal across its width, but do not show any of the critical structural features of the present invention. In fact, none of the above prior art references teach or render the present invention obvious, utilizing a hand-held tool which eliminates the aforementioned difficulties.